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Scared dad so affraid of ALS

I have been having some scary symptoms for the past month. I have been experiencing numbness in my hands off and on. It comes and goes. Sometimes will last a couple days. I also feel a loss of my fine motor skills. EX. Dropping things, clumsy, precise movements seem hard such as flipping through paperwork, putting caps on bottles. My hands seem stiff and not right especially when im using a computer. Im also experiencing a lot of muscle cramps/weakness/pain. Legs always feel very weak, sore stiff and tired. I feel off balance at times like knee wants to buckle from muscle giving out in leg when standing. I am also experiencing body wide twitching. This has only been going on for the last 2 weeks. I will get random bubble/twitches in hands, forearms, legs especially thighs, feet, upper arms and neck. The other day my left forearm cramped for a minute. After that my forearm and hand twitched for 3 days. I also get random body jerks. Ill be laying watching TV and foot will jerk or arm. Sometimes I get restless legs at night time. Cant sit still or get comfortable. I have had a lot of jaw tightness as well. Some numbness/ loss of feeling in cheek that comes and goes. Overall I just don't feel right. I have lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. I have been having sever anxiety over this for months. I cant stop googling symptoms and finding the worst. All of my symptoms seem to point to ALS. I am a young 29 year old father of two and the fear of something life threatening is killing me. I cant sleep and am struggling to live my life as im in a constant fear as well as dealing with scary symptoms. I spend half my day worrying I have ALS and doing strength test. EX. Standing on tippy toes, heels, squeezing things. I have walked on tippy toes so much recently I think I now have a calf strain. My entire left calf is extremely sore and I can no longer stand on toes on that foot. Due to pain not because the muscle wont go up. Now I am even more scared because one of my muscles is not working. I have had 7 doc appointments in last 2 months and 3 trips to ER. Clean MRI on brain as well as CT scan. My doc thinks its stress / anxiety and put me on Lexapro for but its only been 14 days and its not working. I don't think its anxiety the symptoms and fear are causing me anxiety. The health anxiety is so bad now im loosing it. I cant get in to see a Neuro for 2 months. I don't think I can wait that long sitting here in fear getting worse and more scared. Do you think with my symptoms I need to worry about ALS ? I can deal with many things that life might throw at me. The fear of not being here to see my kids grow I cannot. I understand without seeing me you cant diagnose me. I just want a professional opinion on what you think it possibly could be and if you think I can stop worrying about ALS. Possibly its fibermyolgia, BFS or something else. Thyroid has been checked. Blood and vitamin levels are good. I have had every test you can think of besides seeing a NEURO and getting a EMG. One more thing I wanted to ask you and check. I notice I have bad cubital tunnel syndrome symptoms. I think that might be causing the numbness. My left hand is numb on pinky, ring finger and bottom of hand. It is worse when elbow is bent or resting on a desk. EX. when im laying down holding phone with elbow bent. When I think back to a couple days ago, the arm cramp I got followed by numbness was on a day my arm was resting on a desk for a long period of time. It cramped up in that exact position. This would def explain my hand numbness I get. I only have been working a job that im on the computer all day for the past 9 months. That's around when my symptoms started. This was then followed by sever anxiety. The health anxiety is causing other problems. Could Cubital tunnel syndrome be a sign of ALS, or would you not feel numbness at all ? If I gently tap elbow in funny bone area the numbness increases and it sends electrical shocks down my forearm and hand. Im just so scared. Obviously Cubital tunnel syndrome would not be fun but Ill gladly take that over something that would take me away from my family. The body wide twitches scare me as well as Dr. google associates them with ALS. My primary said body wide twitching is not ALS. She said that it would be only in one spot after muscle is wasting. Is this true ? Im praying that the Cubtial tunnel syndrome syndrome is scaring me so much that the anxiety is increasing causing body wide muscle twitches. Once again I know its no guarantee but do you truly believe all of this points away from ALS ? I don't see the Neuro until October. As long as I don't think its ALS I can wait no problem. Waiting for a month feeling like its ALS will eat me alive. I just want to be here for my kids. Last thing do you think me doing all the crazy strength test caused my calf strain ? If it was ALS would calf even feel sore or just not work ? Mine hurts bad right now when I cause any strain on it
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Avatar universal
ALS is EXTREMELY rare, there are fewer then 20,000 cases here in the US per year.

Healthy anxiety is rough and health anxiety is what's convincing you that you have ALS. Your symptoms don't really scream ALS but it doesn't mean that everything your experiencing is anxiety either..

I have or have had all the things you have described... Have you had your potassium and magnesium checked recently? If not, perhaps you can have your primary order them as being deficient in either can cause muscle spasms/twitches.

You might consider getting an appointment with a therapist. Not because your symptoms aren't real but because anxiety tends to make things worse and getting your anxiety under control will make the road to figuring out whatever is causing your symptoms, a less bumpy one....

Best wishes.....
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Sorry, I meant to say *health* anxiety, not *healthy* anxiety... lol I'm not sure any type of anxiety is healthy
Avatar universal
My 3 month journey has been doing everything you are talking about. I quit caffeine, am very active, less sugar and sweets, multiple test such as vitamin deficiency s, blood work, MRI and CT of brain all came back clean. I am hoping someone who knows a lot about ALS can help confirm to me that my symptoms point away from it. You get so many mixed and confusing answers. I am also having Muscle Spacisity, Random muscles will jerk, twitch, pulse or contract on there own. One of my ER visits was because every muscle in my body was contracting so much I thought I was having a seizure could barley walk because whole body was spazing out. The ER said it was anxiety and a panic attack. After that is when all of this body wide twitching started.  I noticed the Ulnar nerve/ Cubitul tunnel symptom a week ago. I was sitting at desk when forearm contracted and cramped up. Lasted for about a minute. After that muscles in forearm twitched for 4 days and I know have numbness on pinky, ring finger and back of hand. The numbness is intensified and worse when I bend Elbow, Lightly tap funny bone or put pressure on forearm area.

1. If my ulnar nerve damage was due to ALS I would not feel the numbness correct ? It feels like I constantly hit my funny bone. Gets worse when I tap elbow solftly, bend elbow or push on forearm. When I read things online it was saying some people with ALS had severe ulnar never damage. I feel like mine might be bad however I can defentley feel the numbness/tingling sensation.

2. If my calf cramp was due to ALS I would not feel the soreness right ?

3. Does body wide twitching lead away from ALS ? My doctor said the twitching occurs after sever noticeable damage. EX... cant walk, cant use arm, cant run, play sports.

4. I can still do things like golf, hockey, working out lifting things I just get tired easier. Overall just feel a little weaker. Would I be able to do these things if it was ALS ? Would I feel my self slowly getting weaker or not notice it until one day it does not work ?

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1530171 tn?1448129593
Please do yourself a HUGE favor and go back to the fundamentals of  living well and healthy, before putting  all your eggs in one basket and suffering with all the complications (including anxiety) of dealing with numerous doctors and neurologists, soon to be  replaced by psychiatrists.
We forget that we were never "designed" to work in front of a computer screen for hours at a time.
It's not only the EMF pollution, it;s the neck forward position, the bad posture, the lack of activity
during those long hours, not to mention the repetitive movements over and over.
Artificial light will never replace natural sunlight and while I mention this, consider testing yourself for vitamin D.
Also consider testing B12 which plays a great role in neurological function.
If you want to step it up, ask for an MMA test which will show Methylocobalamin B12 levels, just in case you're not converting B12 properly.
Perhaps your magnesium levels are low, but don't go by regular blood test results as they only show serum levels, kinda useless, when we need the level of magnesium which  is  present in the tissues. The test ask for is an RBC test for magnesium or even better an RBC test for electrolytes
which includes magnesium.
Optimizing your nutritional intake,  re-connecting with nature, getting some physical activity daily ( video gaming, watching tv etc  don't count,lol!) will pay off handsomely in health dividents!
Avoid  or seriously reduce junk food  soda, alcohol, negative thoughts and make a big effort to  take in only what's good for you, including  positive thoughts!

What I suggest is a much  more reasonable starting approach.
Besides, who actually said we need to follow a strict medical  diagnostic and therapeutic protocol,
when many of our issues may have to do with the (poor) choices we make.

BTW our ancestors had no understanding of  what stress and anxiety meant, since it was only experienced for a brief  moment, while being chased by a huge wild beast, lol!
Nowadays,  it seems  we stress about non-existing  "beasts" just because we entertain a potential future presence of them in our thoughts. Silly, but indeed real, as far as the effects go.
Have your cortisol levels checked (4 x saliva test and DHEA)

ALS is a real stretch , which should be put on the back-burner of your grandma's old range for now.

Just my educated opinion.

Best wishes,
Niko





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Avatar universal
Another side note, Im a 28 year old male. I had the hand go numb over a year ago one time but went away next day.
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